I was looking for a pen with fude nib and wider section/grip diameter. I've been weary with too cheap pens drying out, so after reading many reviews about this Jinhao, which is not as cheap as some of their other models, I wanted to give it a try! I read that it's an homage/based off the Parker Duofold Centennial's design. I chose the ivory/off white and black colourway. I put it next to my bone folder (made of bone) and the colour of the pen is similar.

The Jinhao has some heft to it, but not overly so. It does get too back heavy if you try to post it. The barrel has some opacity differences/striations to the way the off-white shows up. There's barely/no step between the threads and barrel, which is a design feature I love. Some people love to have a flush cap with barrel, while I would sacrifice that streamline look with the practicality of not having a step/barrel dig into my hand.

Sandwiched between Pilot Kakuno and Pelikan 400NN. The colourway of Kakuno and Jinhao are...Pinkey. Jinaho's grip diameter is comparable to Kakuno and definitely thicker than the 400NN.

I loaded the pen up with Pennonia Rági (Bubblegum), and it wrote without any problem out of the envelope. I was worried the angles wouldn't be forgiving, but after writing/drawing fast, it seems to keep up fine.

Solid pen! It's a true ink guzzler. I got this pen last year and after using it for a few months, it doesn't seem to have issues with drip out, but rather, some dry out. I enjoy writing with it when there's ink loaded in it though! Versatile :)

Today's music post: Cleft Of The Rock by Kyshona Armstrong.

Bandcamp was recently bought out by Epic Games. I'm not sure what the full implications are, but hope that there will still be a place for music makers to get direct support from folks beyond abysmal stream dollars.

I received a handmade pen (Manaslu model) from JEB's PENS a while back! It was fun experience because I got to pick the materials (alternate briar and jade) and do a bit of customization (e.g., make the pen cap postable, ask for a specific section/grip diameter, etc.). We wrote each other back and forth to solidify the details and clarify what I wanted/what he felt was possible. I was both picky and very unpicky at the same time. The feeling I had was I don't want to mess with a design that isn't broken just because of my whims.

In the end, I think we landed on something that was pretty similar to the base model's measurements (haha). The look of the pen changes since the pen blank material had different striations and colouration depending on the side of the pen you were looking at—it can look creamy/caramel at some angles!

John provided guidance and sent a lot of photos along the way, which I appreciated. Mine has a gold plated steel Jowo #6 broad nib (tuned by John) with a cartridge/converter filling system. The nib is hard but writes smooth and wet. There are some endearing details with the unpackaging experience, but I won't spoil it! From initial outreach to receiving the pen in the mail (USA to Canada), it took about 3-4 weeks! John also does completely custom work too.

It's pretty hard to tell that this is a handmade/hand turned pen because the finishing is amazing. Very shiny polished and no abrupt edges or machining marks that I can see. I can't stop admiring it!

Over time I've come to recognize that I like stubby looking pens—ones that are flat top-ish leaning, and vintage-looking. I'm also more into gold tone hardware, but that does depend on the pen body colour. John has a lot of vintage inspired models with a variety of clips, but I chose the Manaslu because it was shorter and would still fit a long international cartridge. This particular pen has a soft taper to peaks on both ends of the pen (an homage to the double peaks of Manaslu mountain)! I like that it looks like the fake verison of its intended natural materials (briar wood and jade), but is more low maintenance. It is a very special pen to me!

When I got the pen I wondered what ink to pair it with. At first I used Pennonia's Zuzmó. It's a pretty close match with the jade portion (I think the jade has more yellow, while the ink is cooler toned) and I enjoyed it for a while, but sometimes the ink isn't dark enough (depends on the paper).

When I ran out of that initial fill, I switched to the Ferris Wheel Press's Writing Desk (Wonder Pens special) for a more legible colour.

I got the Wonder Pens ink primarily for...souvenir reasons since it's a shop I've patroned/visited IRL in Toronto. As I was using Writing Desk I noticed it has some similarities to Waterman's Absolute Brown, which was the very first bottle of ink I ever bought for myself. As far as I can tell, Writing desk has a bit more shading and yellow/orange undertone to it, and of course, has a bit of green sheen.

Well, now I have these two bottle of brown inks. I try to justify it to myself by saying that the Absolute brown is safer when paired with the vintage Waterman W3.

Today's music post: Sean by Aya (Lysa Aya Trenier).

I backed this on Namisu's kickstarter a while back. It became an exclusive to kickstarter/pre-orders after some delays with production. I like pocket pens and didn't have a blue pen, so here we are...

The pen came shipped in a ridiculously large box given the actual pen size. They probably could've downsized the shipping box by half. The pen's actual box is very small, and the pen was further encased in a plastic tube for protection. For some reason I was convinced I bought a titanium nib to go with this, but after checking my records, I think I had misremembered. This colour of knurled grip reminds me of a nail file.

It's a bit of a weird colour way to me, from a colour harmony POV. This is definitely more of a rose gold, than a yellow gold. If I had my way I'd choose black/gold, but it wasn't offered as a colourway! The next closest thing would be stealth black, but I also already have such a pen...warm red/gold also feels more harmonious to me, but I also already have a red/gold pen...! Perhaps like my OPUS88 Omar, where I sacrificed personal aesthetic for price point and variability in my FP suite.

The anodizing on the blue cap (aluminum) was even, but less so on the clip. The first load of ink I put through this pen partially drained into the cap. I'm not sure why, I thought perhaps it was the vacuum seal from capping/uncapping? But it hasn't happened again so far, at least with the pen stored horizontally. I also noticed some steel-wool type material stuffed into the barrel of the pen; I thought it was a mistake at first, but perhaps it is acting like a "spring" to keep the cartridge pushed into the feed?

The sensation of capping/uncapping takes getting used to. There's a sound. Metal scrapping against metal isn't something I'm used to hearing (nor do I find it pleasant). It's not a quiet pen that you can un-sheath in a quiet meeting unnoticed. You can post the cap very deeply or more shallow, since there are several O-rings on top to hold the cap in place at your preferred length. I find that I don't post it super deep.

The nib makes noise when you write on the paper, at least on Rhodia it sounds a bit SQUEAKY which was surprising to me. I don't think it's the worst sound, but also something to consider. Might be a bock nib trait. I'd also say that Bock nibs seem to have a bit more 'spring' to them than Jowo steel nibs. Ink used above is Pennonia's Balaton-kék, though the photo does not do the multishading properties of the ink justice!

It is indeed a small pen when fully capped...but not one where the grip is mega small! It still feels substantial because of the weight/materials.

Today's music post: Big Moonlight (Ookii Gekkou) by Vanishing Twin

Another animal/creature edition of OC x fountain pen.

2 WHSmith school pens (made by...Platignum?), frankenpened together to make the most matching Bugslu body. Bugslu is rainbow coloured but most of their body is green. While I don't have any blue/red in this mix, hopefully it is close enough ahaha.

Interestingly the nib itself is a folded steed nib, not tipped. Apparently this means that the nib may wear out faster than a tipped one.

Today's music post: Perch Privileges by Nature's Neighbor from their album, O t h e r s i d e.

Sure my last two fountain pen x OC posts were about human original characters, but my fondness for my animal/creature characters is has no bounds.

After looking at my pen lineup it was clear that I had mostly dark-coloured accented pens.

When I thought about Pinkey, I was torn between the newer Kaweco Perkeo in peony blossom, but was always drawn to the Pilot Kakuno in soft pink because of the colour ratios, but I didn't want two of the same pen!! I heard Perkeos have Bock 5 nibs, which I've never tried.

WELL too bad, I broke my rule of not having 2 of the same pen!!!!!! For PINKEY!!!

Discovered the nib had a different smiley face than my other kakuno (unknowingly) so now I feel justified to have both of these kakunos. I'm searching for the perfect shading pink ink. The one in this pen right now is Sailor Shikiori Sakuramori, and the paper is Rhodia.

If there was a world where I could get both of these re-tipped to a thicker wetter nib (more like a broad/stub) I would be very tempted! Though the costs would be astronomical compared to the base pen, haha. Stubby pen for stubby legged Pinkey...a dream.

Today's music post: Golden ft. Kid Fonque & D-Malice by Sio. The entire FEATURES album is also GOLDEN...!